Before skimming and reading ahead, try answering this question (bonus points if you actually write it out to check your work at the end of the post):
In three sentences, describe the perfect person you could hire to join your team/business this year.
We’ll come back to that at the end of the post.
When talking to a teammate about the kicking off the year we got on to the subject of recruitment and the things I’ve picked up over my 30ish year career. It got me thinking: a great topic for our first post of the year can focus on breaking down preconceptions and unhelpful business traditions in hiring great talent. This will apply to any manager/leader in any industry.
So here we are: a brand-new year with all its promise, challenges, and the usual flurry of posts about “new beginnings” and “reshaping the future.” My pitch to you in the onslaught of 2025 posts you’ve seen this year is to stop recycling the same tired practices that make hiring exceptional talent harder.
The most detrimental bias many companies introduce into their hiring process is unnecessary ‘required qualifications’.
– me, just now.
Yes, there are plenty of biases regarding age, ethnicity, culture, etc. Those are legit issues – but most companies are already tackling them (or trying to). What I’m talking about is the biggest culprit of mediocrity masquerading as “standards.” Those bullet-point lists of “required qualifications” may seem harmless – maybe even helpful – but they are actively turning away amazing talent.
Not to be accused of being vague, here are the two most common and most unnecessary qualifications everyone can drop from every job description:
- Education
- Industry experience
You might ask, “what’s wrong with requiring a degree? This is a great way to pre-screen for traits like persistence, communication skills, and someone’s ability to be teachable/coachable.” That may have been true once, but hardly so today. More importantly though, filtering for degrees immediately excludes candidates based on social status, accessibility to education funding, and early-years stability. The only roles that really need specific education are licensed ones (doctors, aircraft pilots, veterinarians, etc) and highly specialized STEM roles (physics, quantum computing, etc.)1.
As a two-time drop-out who has worked with and hired many people without degrees, I can tell you firsthand that most jobs in tech, marketing, and finance do not require degrees to excel. In fact, I’ve seen no correlation whatsoever between education and performance in all my management years.
Industry experience is another big misnomer. Some of the best hires I’ve ever made came from smart & talented people making lateral or career changes. Sure, industry XP lets you (the manager) skip over some training. But what you gain in speed to onboarding you give up in innovation, diversity, and hustle. Or put another way: you can’t complain about how hard it is to hire amazing talent when you’re turning people away for being new to an industry.
Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) sums it up pretty well:
In determining “the right people,” the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.
Here’s my thought for you going into the new year: hiring A-level talent should always be your top objective. Education and industry experience are instinctively ignored for most roles. Go back to your answer to my prompt above: “describe the perfect person you could hire to join your team/business this year.” I’m pretty sure you didn’t mention school and you didn’t mention industry experience.
So if you already know it’s not a required criteria for excellence, why would you give amazing people yet another reason to not apply for your role?
Footnotes
1. I’d go so far as to say if you are hiring a doctor or physicist, you probably still don’t need to list education requirements. It’ll be table-stakes for any applicant. When was the last time a marketing specialist applied for Head of Thoracic Surgery at a hospital?
